Iran

The US-Iranian relationship has experienced significant challenges over the past forty years. The lack of diplomatic relations, changes in both the US and Iranian administrations, repeated US military interventions in the region as well as Iran’s support for militant groups and increasingly harsh rhetoric on both sides have further undermined chances for reconciliation. Through a balanced approach of engagement and containment, there is a need to push back against Iranian intervention while promoting US interests, regional conflict resolution, and the well-being of the Iranian people.

Will Iran’s Quest for Nuclear Weapons Bring a Second Holocaust?

Dispatches
Mar 6, 2026

How would a Kurdish offensive change the war in Iran?

By
Atlantic Council experts

Our experts explain the goals of the various Kurdish groups the United States is reportedly backing for an attack against Iran and how their involvement could impact the wider war.

Conflict
Defense Policy

Will Iran’s Quest for Nuclear Weapons Bring a Second Holocaust?

Dispatches
Mar 6, 2026

Washington’s limited levers to shape a post-Khamenei Iran

By
Nate Swanson, Ingrid Small

The United States and its allies do have some options to coax change that might result in a more Western-leaning Tehran.

Conflict
Iran

Will Iran’s Quest for Nuclear Weapons Bring a Second Holocaust?

MENASource
Mar 3, 2026

Trump wants Iranians to ‘take back their country’ from the regime. Can they?

By
Alan Pino

To succeed in overthrowing the Iranian regime, an uprising would likely require a unifying leader, an effective organization, and the support of whatever remains of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions

Programs

Middle East Programs

Working with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

EXPLORE THE Atlantic Council’s Middle East PROGRAMs

Content

New Atlanticist

Mar 30, 2012

Will Iran’s Quest for Nuclear Weapons Bring a Second Holocaust?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

“SHOWDOWN” is splashed in large red letters across the cover of Newsmax, the April issue of the conservative monthly. Followed by, in smaller letters, “Iran’s Plan for a Second Holocaust Must Be Stopped.” And, in parentheses, in still smaller type, between the twin grim-looks of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu, the cover story […]

Iran Nuclear Nonproliferation

New Atlanticist

Mar 28, 2012

America’s Number One Geostrategic Threat?

By James Joyner

Yesterday, likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney declared Russia “without question, our No. 1 geopolitical foe.”

Iran Korea

New Atlanticist

Mar 26, 2012

US-Pakistani Relations “Challenging,” Says Ex-Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz

By Shaukat Aziz

On the sidelines of the Jeddah Economic Forum, Journalist Faisal J. Abbas interviewed Shaukat Aziz, former Prime Minister of Pakistan and current Member of the Atlantic Council’s International Advisory Board.

Iran Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Mar 14, 2012

Dr. Strangelove, Israel, and Iran

By Harlan Ullman

In considering how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, it is instructive first to see Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 movie masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove — Or How I Learned to Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

Iran

New Atlanticist

Mar 12, 2012

America Recalibrates Its Israeli Alliance

By Sarwar Kashmeri

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned home without receiving an American endorsement for an Israeli attack on Iran. Neither did he find much support for the Israeli government’s assertion that the window to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons is about to slam shut.

Iran

New Atlanticist

Mar 7, 2012

Bibi Bows to Reality

By Barbara Slavin

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have concluded that Barack Obama will be re-elected in November and that Israel would jeopardize its ties with his administration if it attacks Iran before then. In public appearances Monday before and after a two-hour meeting with Obama in the Oval Office, Netanyahu stressed that U.S. and Israeli […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Feb 29, 2012

A Historical Parallel on the Possible but Unwanted War With Iran

By Ioan Mircea Pascu

In the 1980s, the academic world witnessed the appearance of a relatively sudden interest in the beginnings of the First World War. In essence, the great majority of studies devoted to the subject concentrated themselves on the “mechanics” of its initiation. Indeed, due to those “mechanics” – a combination of mobilizations and war declarations – […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Feb 23, 2012

The World Depends on the Future of Greece and Iran

By Harlan Ullman

What a tense and chilling time internationally! Economically and financially, markets and bourses remain fixated on what happens, or doesn’t, in relatively tiny Greece. For the moment, bulls may be eclipsing bears in resolving the Greek debt crisis — but only for the moment.

Greece Iran

New Atlanticist

Feb 9, 2012

Israel, Iran and the United States: All Options Are Bad!

By Don Snow

The growing confrontation between Israel and Iran over the Iranian nuclear weapons program is spinning perilously out of hand, and it has within it the seeds of the most potentially dangerous threat to international peace since the Cold War ended over 20 years ago. What we are witnessing is a verbal run-up to a military […]

Iran Israel

New Atlanticist

Jan 27, 2012

Deterring Iran: The Return to American Statecraft

By Julian Lindley-French

On the tomb of Tamburlaine, King of Persia, there is a dread inscription, “When I rise, the world will tremble”. Faced with Tehran’s seeming determination to develop nuclear weapons the march towards confrontation this week quickened. After threats from Iran to close the oil-vital Straits of Hormuz an American aircraft carrier was joined in the […]

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Experts

Fellow

Carmiel Arbit

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

Civil Society Extremism

Fellow

Colin Brooks

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

Iran Middle East

Fellow

Hagar Hajjar Chemali

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Economic Statecraft Initiative GeoEconomics Center

Economy & Business Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion

Fellow

Danny Citrinowicz  

Nonresident Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Cybersecurity

Fellow

Ariel Cohen

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Eurasia Center

Central Asia Politics & Diplomacy

Fellow

Jonathan Fulton

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

China Chinese
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